Is this how you envision your family at summer festivals?

Like many parents in Canada, my husband and I do our best to expose our kids to a wide range of cultural activities. Since we met through our mutual love of music, it’s natural that we want to bring our kids along to some concerts and festivals, and not just stuff that’s specifically aimed at kids. With music and cultural festival season upon us there are plenty of outdoor festivals to take in all across Canada, but even if a fest states that kids are welcome (or lets them in for free), is it always appropriate to bring kids to “grown-up” music and cultural festivals?

The answer, in a nutshell, is “use your judgement.” As much as you may want to introduce your kids to the sounds of the Indigo Girls at the Winnipeg Folk Fest or Bjork at the Ottawa Bluesfest, you need to consider the comfort three groups of people before deciding if it’s a good idea to bring the whole family along:

1. Your Kids
They’re the most important factor here. As much as you may have fantasies of turning them into discerning fans of the arts, you may have to come to terms with the fact that they might get bored watching your favourite band, dance troupe, poet, or whoever else you go see perform at a festival. Factor in your kids’ ages, their level of interest, and stamina. Check the set times and try to predict how tired they’ll be when your favourite artist hits the stage. Look at the festival website to see if there’s a kids area to give them a break from the regular entertainment. Don’t forget about the food factor — investigate the list of food vendors and if you don’t see anything your kids can eat, ask if you can bring food to the festival site with you.

2. Yourself
Don’t ruin your day by setting high expectations for fun-filled day where everyone gets along with no temper tantrums or meltdowns. Ask yourself some honest questions and if you think your kids might destroy your enjoyment of something you really want to see, don’t bring them to the festival. Would you rather be sitting in the beer garden for hours on end rather than watching them on a bouncy castle in the kids’ area? There’s no shame in that — but if that’s the case, pony up and hire a babysitter.

3. Other Audience Members
You’re not the only one excited to experience a day out at a festival — everyone else in the audience paid for their tickets too and they deserve to be able to enjoy the show without being disturbed by some kid who isn’t behaving properly. Yes, unexpected things happen and we all have to be tolerant of other people in an uncomfortable situation, but if you know that your kids are going to cry, whine loudly, throw things, etc, even if you’ve mastered the art of tuning them out you need to be considerate of others attending the event. Try to remember what your life was like before having kids — would that younger version of yourself be bothered by your children’s behavior? If the answer is “yes,” the festival may not be for them.

If you think your children will enjoy the festival, you’ll be able to enjoy the festival with them, and they won’t be too bothersome to anyone else, go for it — festivals of many kinds can be great family experiences! Have a great summer and happy festival-ing!

This year, for Father’s Day weekend, we took a trip down to Seattle. Three and a half years ago, when our eldest just turned one, we attempted the same trip.  To say it was a disaster would be an understatement. Imagine a baby screaming for the entire 2.5 hour drive, refusing to sleep, massive vomit all over dad (whose birthday we were trying to celebrate), and parents finally giving up and driving back home at 2am. It has taken us nearly 4 years to pluck up sufficient courage to make the trip again.

I’ll be honest, the trip down had me wondering whether Seattle was cursed for us. The I5 bridge is still out and the detour added more than an hour to our trip. I will say, based on our trip home, I think the hour detour was due to Friday evening rush hour because the trip home was painless! After the detour, I got a $93 speeding ticket for being 5 miles over the speed limit (I’d missed the sign where the speed limit dropped)…erg!  Finally we experienced the frustration of Apple maps in the States; they work great in Vancouver but horribly in Seattle. After attempting to locate our hotel in an incredibly dodgy neighbourhood, we switched to Google maps and our curse was broken.

We arrived at the Hotel Monaco – it is beautiful, brilliant and an absolute MUST when in Seattle. Upon arrival, our boys were encouraged to find a toy in the toy box. I expected the standard shared-toys one usually finds in a communal kid box. However, our boys were delighted to discover a treasure trove of brand new toys. The toy they selected they got to keep!

We booked “You Otter Try The Monaco” package; Hotel Monaco has partnered with the Seattle Aquarium to celebrate the opening of their new otter home. In the Otter package you receive: 2 discounted tickets to the Seattle Aquarium; otter pops (sweet treats); valet parking; a stuffed otter (proceeds go to the Otter Conservation program at the Seattle Aquarium); a live otter-cam in the hotel lobby; visits from Aquarium staff during the wine hour (hosted bar in the evening for guests) throughout the summer. It is a terrific package with prices starting from $259.  We couldn’t have asked for more from our stay! The customer service at the hotel is excellent: the staff are keen to assist; the valet service is prompt and efficient; and the front desk staff are sincere and most helpful.

After check-in and toy selection we headed up to our room. There we met Max.  Max is a goldfish. Not only is the hotel super kid-friendly, it is also pet-friendly. If you don’t bring a pet with you, Hotel Monaco lends you a goldfish to keep you company. Our boys were over the moon with Max! Our first day in Seattle was very quiet: just checking into the hotel and talking non-stop about Max. We knew the boys needed rest as we had lots of activities planned for Day 2 and Day 3 of our visit to Seattle.

I will be honest, I don’t get Star Wars.  Prior to meeting my husband I barely knew the franchise existed.  I think within the first week of our dating all three movies (yes, it was before the 2nd trilogy was created) had been shown to me.  So knowing that Star Wars trivia is lost on me, I gave my husband this new Star Wars book as an early Father’s Day present.  I knew I couldn’t write this review on my own; I needed the input of a Star Wars geek!

He LOVED it!  The Star Wars Year By Year: A Visual Chronicle is the best trivia book he has read.  The structure of the books is quite intriguing: non-Star Wars news items are married with Star Wars events in the 98 year chronology.  Certainly it is geared towards the Star Wars-loving audience but there are countless historical factoids that everyone would enjoy.  My husband has gleefully flipped through the book a few times but he is no where close to having read everything.  There is so much crammed into this book.

The book starts in 1914 (when Winsor McCay pioneered the new animation technique of coloured images) and ends in the summer of 2009 (when George Lucas begins his retirement process from Lucas films).  Each of the 317 pages is chock full of colourful photos, interesting trivia and informative Star Wars details.  The history in between the trilogies (1982-1995) before the announcement of the prequels was most intriguing.  Another fascinating thread through the entire book was the partnership of Star Wars and Disneyland: the opening of Star Tours and the creation of the Jedi Training Academy.

My husband loves the book and I’m sure the dad in your life will feel the same.  In honour of Father’s Day, DK Publishing has a sale on this Star Wars book.  Click here to receive the special rate.

I rate the Star Wars Year By Year: A Visual Chronicle four out of four Ewoks!

School may be almost over, but that doesn’t mean that home reading needs to stop! Kids across Canada are invited to join the TD Summer Reading Club, a free program that encourages reading and rewards kids for keeping up their reading over the summer! Drop by your local library at the end of June to pick up a passport and free magazine and begin collecting stickers for the books you read! There will also be loads of special activities and prizes on the TD Summer Reading Club website over the summer, including some secret content (psst… try the password code ARVIAT). Have a great summer and keep reading!

TD Summer Reading Club Details:

When: Begins at the end of June and stretches throughout the summer
Where: Public Libraries across Canada
Website: www.tdsummerreadingclub.ca

Although we do our best to provide you with accurate information, all event details are subject to change. Please contact the facility to avoid disappointment.

• He is reading the Harry Potter series out loud to the kids every night. They are on book 6.

• He taught me the difference between a Philips and a Robertson screwdriver

• He drove 500 km to help us out when the alternator tanked

• He taught me building your own car is bad ass enough to make up for the fact that the hood is a different color than the frame which is a different color than the doors.

• Mommy doesn’t do wrestling; daddy does.

• He encourages mom to put chocolate sprinkles AND Oreos on our ice cream

• This book; it’s going to make all the moms in the neighborhood hate us while the dads make excuses to come over and help with the build

• The Bank of Dad has never charged interest

• Similarly, dad never asked for the change, only the paper money.

• Dad is good at calling off Mom when she overreacts at/to the kids.

• He never says I don’t call enough. He is just happy to hear my voice, and I am happy to hear his.

• Dancing around the house to loud country music, he will always twirl her until she squeals.

• After meeting with the Principal to discuss a practical joke, he laughed at the ingenuity and declined to punish.

Happy Father’s Day to our favourite Dads. Thanks for being you, doing what you do and being there for us when we’re brats.

Now before you go thinking this is really more than it is, the breakfast only cost $1 because I was at Ikea. But nevertheless, when the cashier jokingly said “Your total is 105 pennies or you could give me $1 more for the person behind you”, I chuckled. Then I looked down at the changed I had fished out only to realize I was holding a toonie already. So I handed it to him with a dime, flashed a smile at the woman behind me and went about my business. For a dollar, there were smiles all around.

I’ve always wanted to do something like that. I know people that have left extra money for the person behind them in the drive thru. I have a friend who at Christmas bought a $100 gift card, handed it to the Barista at Starbucks and asked her to use it for every customer until it ran out. I love random acts of kindness!

How can we start finding random acts of kindness? We can tip someone who doesn’t expect it (like a McDonald’s cashier) or make sure we hold doors open and smile while people walk through. We can help someone load groceries into their car. We can do what my friend did and buy a coffee for total strangers. We can buy an extra bag of groceries and leave it in the food bin today, not because it’s Christmas time or they’re doing a food drive, but today for no reason other than doing something for someone. We can give a homeless person our change without thinking of what negative things they might do with it and hope they will use it for food. We can spread some shopping cart karma and leave the quarter in the cart.

I think it does our children good to see us giving randomly and freely. If I spontaneously decide to take my kids to the Dairy Queen after school, they don’t necessarily appreciate that it’s a treat. But if I hand the clerk a $5 as a thank you after the fact, they will see that and ask me why. A great teaching opportunity arises!

What random acts of kindness have you given or received recently? What can we do to pay it forward?

Recently I unearthed some emails between myself and two friends from high school when we were all pregnant with our first at the same time. These emails were like reading an old diary and made me laugh so hard at my crazy pregnant self that I feared wetting my pants. I see now how full of bravado yet how naive I was about the one event in life that is nothing like what you expect!

Here are some snippets:

July 13 2005 – 5 weeks until D-day, someone asked how much longer I had in my pregnancy.

How much longer until baby? 5 blessed weeks of silence, peace and tranquility are left before 20 odd years of insanity…. Not that I’m keeping track or anything…

I am huge, hot, tired and my feet are killing me, but aside from that, things are good. Oh, and short-tempered – did I mention I am not nearly as good-natured and sweet as usual?

July 26 2005- Written to Melissa who was about 14 weeks less pregnant than I.

Sore ribs eh? I haven’t had that one. And you are in the good trimester! I was feeling so good (until about 33 weeks) that I thought it would be this easy until the end. Let me tell you what else you have to look forward to:
• Sciatica, literally a pain in the ass
• Making ‘old man noises’ every time you get up or roll over or change positions because of the massive bulk.
• Not being able to sleep through the night because you have to pee so many times, being woken up in the middle of the night when you do manage to get soundly asleep because the kid decides this would be a good time to kick the crap out of you.
• Not being able to see your crotch to shave your bikini line, not being able to see or reach your feet to paint your toenails.
• Incessant peeing. They say this actually gets worse in the last month, but seeing as how I have been peeing every ½ hour since about 8 weeks, I cannot fathom how it could get worse!

That’s all I can think of for now. I’m sure I can find more things to whine about if I put some thought into it, but it gets depressing.

August 4 2005 – 2 weeks to go

Hey Folks,
The calls and emails are already starting and I still have two weeks to go until the due date. To answer the inevitable questions:

It’s also weird when I wake up and realize that baby has dropped a little more. It’s like Whoo hoo! I have a waist again, except now I stick out more and can’t reach anything. Yesterday at the doctors office they made me get on the scale backwards because the belly is so big it was putting the scale off balance…

I can look back now and laugh at myself, but truthfully, finding these notes has really unlocked some sweet memories of a really great time in our lives, of great anticipation, a tiny bit of trepidation and a whole lotta love.

How about you? What do you think of your pregnant self?

This is old school animation at its best! From Walt Disney Animation Studios black-and-white, hand-drawn short follows Mickey, his favorite gal pal Minnie Mouse and their friends Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow in a musical wagon ride—until Peg-Leg Pete shows up and tries to run them off the road.

The charm of old style hand drawn animation never fades, and anytime Mickey and Minnie are in the picture I feel about 5 years old! Sadly I won’t be jetting off to France to see it in person but I wouldn’t be surprised to see it come out as a special feature with future Disney DVD releases!

Kathy Buckworth shares some thoughts this month on trios of children. This column was originally run in the Metro News. Kathy’s new book I Am So the Boss of You: An 8-Step Guide to Giving Your Family the “Business” has been optioned by Warner Bros Television. Pick it up at a bookstore near you.

One of my favourite lines from the “The Simpsons” is when Bart complains he is having the worst day of his life. “So far”, responds his unsympathetic yet correctly predictive father, Homer.

I liken that to a study by Today.com that suggests three is the most stressful number of children to have. A mom of three explains that the stress level increases when it comes to things like crossing the street, versus two kids. I would agree that getting three kids to do anything in tandem is harder than getting two kids to do it. But I have four kids, and to the best of my recollection, I don’t recall sprouting an extra arm when that last child arrived. Similarly, my friends with five, six and more children have no more appendages which it make it less stressful, or easier for them to cross the street. Maybe for moms of three, three is the most stressful number of children for them to have… so far.

The study indicates mothers of more than three kids, on average, self-described themselves as at a lower stress level than their triumvirate sisters. It concludes that families with more than three children experience the “Duggar Effect”, referencing the TLC reality family with 19 children. While I am 15 short of this number, admittedly older kids can, on occasion, help younger kids. But does that really offset the stress of knowing you have more children to feed, clothe, potty train, change sheets for, teach how to drive, suffer through first dates, explain birth control to and pay for their post-secondary education? According to MoneySense.ca, the average cost of raising a child in Canada is almost $245,000. Adding this expense for each child doesn’t raise your stress level? Really?

I’m not saying that three kids aren’t stressful for a lot of people. It can be. Just like it is very stressful for some parents of one child, two, four, five, etc. I call it the Pitter Patter Principle. (The original Peter Principle I’m referencing states that people are promoted to a level of incompetency.) Perhaps those who are lucky enough to actively choose the number of children they have, sometimes also reach beyond the level of what they would see as acceptable stress. They are not incompetent in this way, of course. They just learn when to stop.

So what comes first? The proverbial chicken or the fertilized egg? The stress of having kids or the stress level of the parents prior to having them? Since we can’t give back the number of children we had past the third one to do a truly fair comparison, (I may have tried) I guess we’ll never know.

Presented by Disney XD, West 49 LRN2SK8 is touring skateboarding school that travels across the country teaching kids how to skate! This awesome program introduces kids age 5 to 15 to skateboarding in a way that is totally safe, age appropriate, and loads of fun. The tour kicks off in Milton, Ontario on June 8 and wraps up on September 1 in Brampton, ON. Along the way kids in towns and cities in Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Manitoba, Alberta, and BC will get a chance to participate in this free program.

Visit the LRN2SK8 website to see if the program is coming to a city near you. Registration is limited, so be sure to sign up as soon as possible if your kids want to participate!

West 49 LRN2SK8 Details:

When: Various Dates between June 8 and September 1, 2013
Website: www.west49lrn2sk8.com

Although we do our best to provide you with accurate information, all event details are subject to change. Please contact the facility to avoid disappointment.